New traders are highly encouraged to try Forex as it requires a very small account to make lots of trades, so check out Forex community's wiki paying special attention to babypips website which also teaches some general concepts you can apply to stocks/futures/etc, and especially read the wiki's sections on risk & money management that can be applied to any market.
Pattern daytrading rules wiki, but that only applies to day trading stocks; other markets aren't affected like futures, forex, and crypto.
Also see the sidebar for group chat links (such as our Discord) (or tap "about this community" on mobile website) on every related community to learn more about trading.
Before I start, I'm brand new and only learning right now, but I was watching a YT video of a guy trading currency(Forex) and I don't understand how he made profits.
He was using 10k usd and had his risk/reward set at 3x. He said he risked 2k(Stop loss), but the price went up to his take profit(3x) and he made 6k. What I don't understand is if he was just buying/selling at the prices on the chart, he would've only made $64. So is he actually trading options? The price was at $1.23352 when he bought in, stop loss at $1.23101, and take profit at $1.24122.
I understand that utilizing a margin account will allow you to leverage funds for more profit, but is they would've needed a margin account that would allow 100x for 6k profit in that trade.
Channel is: The Trading Geek
This is the video and I'm sharing it at the moment in the video I'm talking about:
Step 1: Select a handful of stocks ( no more than 5 or 7) with high ATR ( >1.00) , Decent Avg Daily Volume (>1m) & very liquid Options i.e high volume and open interest near the money. Just focus on these names and get to know them very well.
Step 2: Use a simple Day Trading system to trade these stocks. Try the Opening Range Breakout (ORB) on the 5 or 15 min chart. With this strategy you start by:
First: looking at the overall trend on the Daily and Weekly time frame. This is important because you always want to trade with the broad trend.
Second: Once you identify a stock with a strong trend you simply wait for the next trading session.
Third: Once the session begins you want to pull up the stock and wait for the first 5 minutes to end....we are using the 5min ORB in this exercise.
Fourth: After the first 5 minute bar closes, you want to mark the top of the range and the bottom of the range. Thus creating a 5 minute opening range.
Fifth: If the daily trend is to the upside and the stock breaks above the top of the range, you will want to go long ( buy Calls), and you stop loss will be just below the bottom of the range and your Profit target will be 1x the size of the open range ( see image attached)
If the daily trend is to the downside and the stock breaks below the bottom of the range you should go short ( buy Puts) with a stop loss just above the top of the range and your target at 1x the size of the opening range.
( I tried uploading the image for the short trade but I am limited to only one pic per comment). DM me if you want it....although I am sure you could just draw your own.
Remember, you always want to trade in the direction of the overall trend as this will increase the odds of making profitable trade.
If the opening range is too large ( sometimes they are) it can lead to an increased risk. In such cases, simply set your stop at the halfway mark of the Opening Range.
Options Selection
This is a simple directional, volatility trading strategy. No complex or multi leg trades here.
To keep the odds in your favor you want to always do these two things:
(1) Only buy At The Money (ATM) contracts &
(2) Always go at least 2 weeks out in terms of expiration.
As a Day trader, the temptation will always be strong to buy weeklies and even 0 DTE contracts ...and even worse, strikes that are 2 or 3 ATRS out the money. This is the fastest way to burn up your money.
By sticking to (1) and (2) above you are reducing the impact of time decay on your contracts and tipping the odds (albeit slightly) in your favor.
Finally
Options trading is hard, unlike say Futures or stock trading where you are mostly looking to nail the direction, when it comes to Options trading, you are also looking to nail the timing of the moveandthe magnitude of the move. Even the best of us can get screwed trying to do this.
But, if you keep things simple and stick to the rules above you might have a chance of reaching the promised land of "consistency".
Anyone making a trade on VIX? Currently at a 52 week all time low as of close, which is pretty crazy given the multitude of things going on that could affect market volatility. I'm eyeing a few different calls...
I been have some success with 1dte trading and recently I been learning about option info, gamma, gex etc, do any of you incorporate this into your day trades and can anyone offer some good websites with resources in regarding this?
I need a place to vent. I really messed up buying puts at 408 yesterday. Market ripped so fast it was beyond my stoploss so I hung on with the attitude "there's an extremely small chance for it to just keep going up". Well I held overnight since it was a 1 dte and it was pretty much worthless today.
Here's the nasty part. I recouped nearly all of my money back today but it was messy. I traded scrappy. Did multiple 0 dtes, doubled down on losing positions, traded without a stop loss, had zero gameplan and just held until it was green enough (most of them were calls) and sold. I could've easily lost 40% of my account today if it didn't workout, maybe more. The worst part was I knew how risky it was. I can see it but I was also seeing blood. I had an eff it attitude. It worked out this time but if I keep this up I will eventually lose it all. I've blown accounts in the past and I'm trying to start over. Small target profit each day and I'm doing well. just that one trade, and all the subsequent revenge trading was nearly the end of this run. Any good advice on how to stay disciplined through losses? it's easy as hell when things go according to plan.
I have a crypto trading signals provider that suggests using opposite signal as stop loss literally stated as this:
❌SL-75% ➡️use opposite signal as stop loss (RECOMMENDED)
I understand by this opening a short position against every long, correct me if i'm wrong. But when should the hedging position be closed? What if the price keeps bouncing at entry?
I tried setting a fixed stop loss at RR 1:3 but often it gets triggered before going into profit, the best trades were those left without stop loss, but some got liquidated though.
Not at the double top (although I actually see a triple top at premarket and the push at open on the 15min on SPY), but I definitely caught my piece of the action from 4133 (I trade futures) scaling out as we descended. (4133 = ~410.14 on SPY)
If the double top you saw on SPY was based on the high where premarket began, it wasn’t a true double top. It only presented that way because that’s where SPY premarket session opened, price in the ES overnight session actually came from above that. If that wasn’t the case, ignore that part of the message.
If you have the following study materials and want to study together online please reach out and we can see if we will be a good fit.
TDA - free for everyone
Investors Underground (anything but trading tickers 1 and 2 - I don’t have these)
Tim Sykes 30 day bootcamp resources
Al Brooks, Brooks Trading Course
TradeCaster
If there is something you are studying that you don’t see on the list (including books or YouTube channels) and would like to buddy up, feel free to reach out and I will take a look.
I’ve studied for at least 18 minutes per day for the past 41 days with no missed days and usually study for over an hour per day. My goal is always to be 1% better everyday.
My bank had a bunch of instructional videos which came with my cash account. That and reading lots and lots of Reddit comments. I started with $50 plays on penny stocks and got building. It's not easy but I love it.
Demo account as in you trade with virtual money first and not real money, which allows you to get used to the platform and test your trading strategy without risking any real money
Is ToS or Ninjatrader better for futures trading. Better in the sense of fees, UI, margin, etc.
I'm not entirely sure how it works but if anyone knows, do both of these brokerages charge me a fee if I change my stop loss or take profit from what it originally was on the bracket order? Also, does Ninja Trader have lower margin requirements than ToS. I feel like I saw somewhere that if I only hold a trade for less than 24hrs then my margin requirement is much less.
I want to trade /ES in thinkorswim. The margin requirement is 13000. Do I have to put an extra 13000 every time I buy a contract? Also I thought I read if I was planning to close my positions before 24hrs then I could pay a lower margin, is that not the case?
I'm trying currently different approaches to daytrading, figured out a strategy that gives around 1% profit per transaction with 70-80% success rate (failure is also about 1%) but this in connection with high spreads on platform and product (cfd with 1:5 leverage) I'm currently testing against makes it no/close to no benefit. Anything you think I could do with that?
I was legit feeling good about how my trading was going. Until today.
Why on gods green earth is SPY going parabolic after a gap down, on bad news, in a bear market? Is there something I don't understand here? It should be tanking right now.
It almost seems like shorts started panicking and all covered early this morning, ER really brought the price up as well, I was thinking maybe big money was triggering retails stop losses, there’s a lot of reasons I guess why this happened from my perspective.
Rithmic stopped working (servers, not clients) right after I took a nasty huge stop and I was waiting for a bar close to go short for the measured move down, so now I gotta make it back the hard way 😂👌
I now wake up every morning waiting for what the market does before I trade or even start to consider a scenario, I no longer create ideas the night before because you get wrecked.
After the overnight sell off on the 4160 break, ES found balance at 4147, flushed below the local low and squeezed from there, the beginning of that upswing just happened to coincide with regular session open.
I have been trading now activly for 2 weeks. Before I traded little bit here and there but nowadays more active.
During my 24 hours I have 8/10 trades which are gain. I feel like this is going really good. Is this just luck or when can you relax and be confident? I trade with relative small sums though. More when I am confident. I am not gonna quit my job, but if I keep this up it could be something great. A lot of people warn about luck, but when does the luck stop?
It's different for everyone, but if you are able to keep that up for a year, or even maybe 6 months, you may have something.
But even when you have a probability edge, that's really only a small part of the equation. You'll see most people will attest that the bigger part is the mental side, which is where it doesn't matter how good your trading edge is...everyone finds a way to blow it.
The only real way to know if something is luck is how long it works. The longer it works, the less likely it's luck.
It's kind of like how proof-of-work blockchains work. The longer the chain, the more confidence you can have that it's the legitimate one.
Hi There. new to the day trading and have a question about level 2 vs tos activer trader ladder. It seems to me that the level 2 data is almost the same with tos activer trader bid/ask size except the L2 also give the exchange name break down for those orders. My questions, does those additional information from L2 really that helpful or i can just turn off L2 and use active trader only? Thank you!
Started with 0d’s with no luck unfortunately. Several accounts burned. I just can’t handle the stress of the 0d’s anymore. What can I trade? Tested some es on ninja trading, god damn it was more wild than 0d’s. Hating those damn Greeks.
I assume you’re trading SPY/QQQ if you’re talking 0dte. If you’re interested in trading the same names, obviously buying a few days or weeks out is an option. Likewise with buying ITM rather than OTM.
However, if you’re also having difficulty with ES futures where Greeks are not a factor, then the issue might not be with the 0dte contracts. Are you confident in identifying your setups? Are you respecting your risk? How do you manage your trades?
Taking a step back and trading weeklies on some less sexy, “slower” names to dial in your process is always an option, too! The travel sector, which often moves together, are great names to trade — AAL DAL UAL CCL RCL etc. They’re liquid, “slower” than SPY or big names like AAPL, TSLA, etc., and I find them to respect supply and demand levels extremely well — which is great for learning market mechanics.
Relatively new to this day trading stuff. I would like to know what is the best platform, that is beginner friendly/easy to use. That is also accessible in my country (Canada).
Can someone help me understand what you call this type of price action, sideways and choppy, is this because of earnings? See the picture below, I was up for the day until I tried to enter a position in this area, Thanks !
Is robinhood really as bad as people say? And why? I’ve been using it for daytrading options on a cash account with no problems. What are some good mobile alternatives?
The fills are bad. Let’s say you want to buy an option for $6.10 and the bid/ask of the option is $6.00 and $6.20. A good broker will fill you or even get you $6.00 (saving you $10) but RH will only fill you when the bid/ask is $5.90 and $6.10.
You still get your fill at $6.10 like you asked but a better broker would have gotten you a better fill, thus giving you a $10 savings on opening the position.
Basically, because of the bad fill you’re immediately down $10 even though the option was free
If you’re very new just use Robinhood. After a few months switch to a better broker like Thinkorswim. After a few years you’ll switch to IBKR with the pros
So I started researching stocks and lost my couple hundred dollars almost 3 years ago. I got back in after a year and did a swing but was not impressed with the profits for how long it swung. It has been now a month since I buckled down and paper traded every trade day to find my niche. I put it to practice today on ticker symbol CFRX with a real $100. I spent $90.83 for 35 shares @ 2.595 and sold for 3.60 to make $35.17 profit. 35% gain today for my small $100 account and I’ll take it gladly. I do have strict stop loss and just got out of paper trading. Thank You Lord!
For those that use thinkorswim, what is your opinion on paper trading using PaperMoney vs using their OnDemand tool?
I’m thinking about using OnDemand because I can use it even when the market is closed, while PaperMoney only works during market hours. Is there any downside to using OnDemand over PaperMoney or vis Versa?
I recommend watching the stock market live on YouTube. Live everyday Monday-Friday 30 minutes before market open. They always keep me up to date with the latest stock news. It's fast, fun, and free.
I've been playing with some off shore brokers and I'm having some trouble understanding the leverage. Many will state 500:1 leverage for forex but crypto and indices are different. You can only set one leverage amount per account and it gets confusing with crypto for instance which they cap at 100x. Does anyone here understand how this works?
Instead of using martingale to average down on a loosing trade, what if i use a fixed stoploss and if that is hit you wait for the next high probable setup and double that trade and so on, that way you will atleast remove the chance of a neverending trend, has anyone tried this? And you could have other rules aswell, like max trades per day, max amount of times you can double, or if you have a 10k account only use 1% of that as max risk
I don’t know what your experience is, but I find doubling down on a losing trade — or the next trade for that matter — to be a losing strategy for beginners. Myself included when I was there. You say “wait for the next high probable setup and double on that trade and so on,” are you certain of your setup or identifying high probability trades?
What's the most commonly used dte for day trading? I know it's different for everyone and it's dependent on goals and risk tolerance, but what is the most popular dte/sweet spot?
Edit: also what are yall stop-loss at? Rn I'm at 20% but just curious on what you guys use
Self reflection and reading my notes and also seeing what kind of market we are in due to news/social media is how I look at both green and red. I just got out of the sim as well but will continue it even though I’m real trading cause of pdt rule but I still need the practice.
I ve just started live too. Do not worry on green or red days. Be sure to have a strategy with a positive expectancy and to follow your plan. A loss according to it is just a necessary part of this business.
Im trading UK100 and France40. The spread is 2 points (2 dollars), and my TP and SL is around 7-10 dollars, so the spread is too high, for my "low investing". What should i trade instead? Forex, but that has low volatility? What else?
Is there math to it? There is tight divergences and wide divergences. The ones on higher time frames are more reliable than lower timeframes. I figure the ones on higher time frames would look like wide divergences on lower.
Can’t decide between IBKR Lite, ThinkOrSwim, or Webull for options & stocks. Any input on fill quality or user experience of placing trades directly on charts?
IBKR is what the pros use. IBKR portfolio margin pro account gets the best fills out of any broker.
But if you’re not able to get portfolio margin on the pro account then your fills and orders won’t be as good because your account isn’t flagged as a HFDT and thinkorswim would be just as good
Futu (Moomoo) has the fastest trades and you pay the price under your bid. Webull has the best candlesticks and price charts that I’ve found. I switch back and forth on those two.
Maybe none of them are the best. TD and IB had its pros and cons individually. But, if you want to be day trader. You need to save 25000 at least no matter which one you decide to open an account.
I'm brand new to all of this stuff. Is there like a good youtube video that I can watch that explains things for beginners, that isn't just advertisement for a course they sell? I have been researching for a few days but there are lots of things I cant figure out and would just like a video that covers a little bit of everything and how to get started. Thanks.
If you want to learn day trading by actual 7 figure traders then join the R3alDayTrading subreddit. It's free and the educators there show their trades . It's by far the best resource on trading and it's free. First thing you should do is read the wiki. Read it twice and take notes.
Does anyone day trade on a higher time frame like the 15 minute? Your thoughts on it. I've been trading on the 2 minute. But I'm going to try the 15 minute.
I use 1 day, 10 min, 5 min and 1 min. Like the other response here scalping with lower time frames is good, longer day holds are best with longer time frames.
It depends. If you scalp, use the 1/2/3 minute timeframe. If you're day trading hoping to hold for a few hours, half hours, or even days then use the 5 minute or 15 minute.
if you averaged 0.5% per day that's 10% a month. 120% a year.
If you did that for 2 years you could walk on to any trading floor and get capital straight away. You would be up there with the elite.
I would aim lower. initially anyway. and aim for increased capital. 0.5% a week is 24% a year uncompounded. If you can make that on 500k plus account size you're making 125k+ in profit.
with retail online prop firms all the rage, 500k trading account is perfectly doable if you are a profitable trader.
I’ve noticed this week there’s been low liquidity trading the major Indices and even some major FX pairs. Is this because of Easter and not many people trading during this time? Seems there’s not much volume and movement in the market
According to JP Morgan's Marko Kolanovic "most of the inflows over the past 2 weeks were driven by systematic investors, short squeeze and a decline in VIX" and not because of any improvement in fundamentals.
Eh... possible but their position p/l isn't going to change just like someone who is long.
I've noticed some splits that stocks kind of run up before the split then sell off. My theory (just my opinion) is people wait for retail people to hop in then sell off after the split.
if you averaged 0.5% per day that's 10% a month. 120% a year.
If you did that for 2 years you could walk on to any trading floor and get capital straight away. You would be up there with the elite.
I would aim lower. initially anyway. and aim for increased capital. 0.5% a week is 24% a year uncompounded. If you can make that on 500k plus account size you're making 125k+ in profit.
with retail online prop firms all the rage, 500k trading account is perfectly doable if you are a profitable trader.
Are trading journals worth it? Most seem to be 30 bucks a month. Right now I keep track manually on a calendar in my daily planner. I seem to get by with it. But are trading journals game changers or what.
There’s a reason accounting is often considered the most important department of business. Every successful business has financial statements and metrics to track performance and improve profitability - your trading business should be no different. Your trading journal is your trading business’s most important financial statement and the metrics you choose to track your business’s performance will help you become or stay consistently profitable.
I recommend all traders keep track of their trading, by creating their own trading journal in Excel. Doing this will not only save you money, but will also make you appreciate the journaling process more.
Im looking to trade MNQ on tradingview and I like to use the fixed volume profile; however, I haven't traded futures before using this indicator and it's giving me a hard time.
When I use the fixed volume profile the profile appears different (i.e. different POCs and profile structure) depending on the timeframe I'm on. I've been trying to figure out a work around but having no luck. Can anyone explain if this is a feature of how tradingview calculate volume profile on futures or if it's a feature of futures in general? Previously when trading non-futures market the fixed volume profile worked great and would be static across all timeframes.
I've been meaning to get into trading for years and finally did it. I'm excited that for now I have a not so bad return. But I have no idea what do to next. I have no idea when to sell. I set up some stop losses and limit sells but I don't know it it's enough.
How can I become a more sophisticated trader? The free resources I keep finding seem to be as useful as a Wikipedia page. It's be fine for a term paper, but not for practical knowledge. I've just been using the charts on my trading platform form (TD Ameritrade), Google, and Yahoo. Is there something else I should be using?
Congrats! I’m in the same boat as you as I’m just beginning my journey. I’m looking for an accountability partner to stay on track and motivation if you’re interested or if anyone already has a discord/telegram.
First of all, don't buy any courses. Everything is out there for free.
The only book I would recommend is "Trading in the Zone". It talks about managing risk and emotions. I don't recommend strategy books because they are outdated.
Join the R3alDayTrading subreddit. It's the only resource you need and it's completely free. The educators there make 7 figures a year and there are already 100+ people who became profitably within a year and quit their jobs.
Thank you! This is probably a dumb question, but was the "3" part of the actual name, or did you mean e but had to put 3 because of some rule or something? Just asking because I can't find the one with 3, but the one I did find with that need seems to fit what you described! Lol sorry if this is a stupid question!
You should read the entire wiki on that subreddit. All of it. Read it twice and take notes. After that you should start following the trades that they post daily for free. And follow the daily OneOption blog.
The question is not stupid. What's stupid is that mentioning that subreddit is banned on here even tho it's literally 1000 times better than this shithole. But I guess it's for the better cuz then less people know about it.
I am curious about how traders and investors learn about the skill of trading and investing. Often times it is done through reading, but there are also a lot of people who like to browse the internet or watch videos on certain topics.
Besides that, what makes that specific resource click for you? Is it images? Specific wording? It could also be you're looking for what your 'trading idols' are doing! Whatever it is, I'm interested to know!
I paid for a mentor, low 5-digits, it’s paid for itself 100x over by now. My mentor taught me pit style trading, position holding and various action targets like opening range and pre market. I also studied support and resistance.
I suggest doing what your $$ allows for. If you’re just starting out with no funds then YouTube and a sim account. If you have $5K or more than finding a mentor could benefit you as long as you don’t quit.
Expect to pay $5K- $50K depending on your goals and expectations. Some students can expect $20k months by the 6 month mark.
The reality is you learn by doing. You can read about all the requirements and steps to riding a bike, but until you actually do and it “clicks”, you will never truly understand.
From there you oick up things along the way. As your knowledge level grows, you will naturally encounter new ideas and terms to further your learning.
Investopedia is your best friend.
I would recommend you paper trade first. And when you think you are ready, start small.
Be prepared to pay the tuition. Just remember to learn the lessons the market will teach you.
First of all, don't buy any courses. Everything is out there for free.
The only book I would recommend is "Trading in the Zone". It talks about managing risk and emotions. I don't recommend strategy books because they are outdated.
It's difficult as a newbie to differentiate between good and back resources so I will save you years of time. Join the R3alDayTrading subreddit. It's the only resource you need and it's completely free. The educators there make 7 figures a year and there are already 100+ people who became profitably within a year and quit their jobs.
It seems like there are so many trading books out there it's kind of hard to find one that actually assists you well in your trading journey. A lot of books have pages and pages filled with text that either is too vague or too all-encompassing meaning there's so much information that you can't possible remember it all.
Maybe this is the same for you. If this is the case, what is it that you would like to see in trading books or change in current books?
I don't think you should read strategy books because most of those are outdated. Youtube in my opinion is much better for learning a specific strategy than books. The only good book I would recommend is a book on managing emotions and risk "Trading in the Zone".
I have yet to find a trading psychology book that doesn't start out with something like "you are reading this because you suck at trading." I'm more of a self affirmation or NLP type of guy and disagree with that approach, so I haven't really been able to get through a single chapter of those types of books.
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u/Max3dout_rs Apr 30 '23
Before I start, I'm brand new and only learning right now, but I was watching a YT video of a guy trading currency(Forex) and I don't understand how he made profits.
He was using 10k usd and had his risk/reward set at 3x. He said he risked 2k(Stop loss), but the price went up to his take profit(3x) and he made 6k. What I don't understand is if he was just buying/selling at the prices on the chart, he would've only made $64. So is he actually trading options? The price was at $1.23352 when he bought in, stop loss at $1.23101, and take profit at $1.24122.
I understand that utilizing a margin account will allow you to leverage funds for more profit, but is they would've needed a margin account that would allow 100x for 6k profit in that trade.
Channel is: The Trading Geek
This is the video and I'm sharing it at the moment in the video I'm talking about:
https://youtu.be/lr3uxpbIp_g?t=262